Indianapolis 500 – 2020 – Wednesday Update #6 – post practice

The first driver on track for the 150-minute session to finish the day was Alexander Rossi. The 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner turned laps solo but had to come in early when the cooling hose to his helmet came off. The Californian got out of the car and tried a different helmet and cooling hose.

With just over two hours left on the first day of Indianapolis 500 practice, veteran Tony Kanaan got into the No. 41 K-Line USA / A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet to get a feel for the set-up on rookie Dalton Kellett’s car. The Canadian turned a total of 81-laps during ROP, and his top lap speed was 215.852mph.

After getting up to speed, Kanaan turned laps of 218.319mph, 218.117mph, 218.306mph, and 217.780mph before handing the car back over to Kellett.

After getting out of the car, Kanaan spent time debriefing with Kellett, his driver coach and Indianapolis 500 veteran Darren Manning, his engineer Will Phillips, and strategist John Brunner.

Tony offered to get in the car, and after his laps told Kellett that the car was fine and that he needed to take his time getting up to speed.

At the same time that Kanaan was on track, the Team Penske duo of Power and Pagenaud were on the track running together.

With just under two hours remaining, the yellow flag came out for a track inspection. The green flag came back out nine-minutes later, and the track was quite a bit busier.

With a good tow, Marco Andretti went to the top of the timing screen for about 30-minutes. With 80-minutes remaining, James Hinchcliffe went quicker with a lap at 224.526 mph.

Kellett got back out on track and was able to get up to the same speed that Kanaan ran in that same car earlier during the session, and quickly passed the final 11-laps of his ROP.

When happy hour began at 4:30 pm, there were ten cars on the track, and the top five lap speeds were held by Hinchcliffe, Andretti, Dixon, Hunter-Reay, and Alonso.

With just over 45-minutes left in practice, the track was quiet for a few minutes.

The Ed Carpenter Racing threesome was the first team to head out on track together. They were quickly joined by fellow Team Chevy drivers from Team Penske and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

After that run in traffic, Karam talked to Dylan Welch, telling the NBC Gold audience that it was a challenge in traffic, but that the car felt much better today than it did on the first day of practice last year. He said it appeared that everybody was dealing with the exact same thing – understeer in Turn 2 and Turn 4. He also mentioned that it was tough to pass when the tire life started to fall off. When he got out of the car, Karam had the 16th fastest lap.

With 40-minutes left in practice, 18 cars were on the track, and the track remained busy.

With 15 minutes left in the session, the No. 4 Tresiba / A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Charlie Kimball made a light brush of the concrete wall at turn-in for Turn 2. That got the car loose, but he was able to save the rear end.

Unlike many practice days, the final few minutes of practice was reasonably quiet.

As that session was ending, the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA Chevrolet of Ben Hanley was rolled out to pit lane, and it was announced that they would get 30-minutes to complete at least his first portion of his refresher.

Final practice results

RANKCAR NO.DRIVERTEAMENGINEFAST SPEEDTOTAL LAPS
129James HinchcliffeAndretti AutosportHonda224.52680
298Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta with Marco & Curb-AgajanianHonda224.34596
39Scott DixonChip Ganassi RacingHonda224.04761
428Ryan Hunter-ReayAndretti AutosportHonda223.34181
566Fernando AlonsoArrow McLaren SPChevy223.23829
61Josef NewgardenTeam PenskeChevy223.18882
760Jack HarveyMeyer Shank RacingHonda223.178107
855Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team GohHonda223.12860
947Conor DalyEd Carpenter RacingChevy223.02080
103Helio CastronevesTeam PenskeChevy222.92962
1114Tony KanaanAJ Foyt EnterprisesChevy222.87358
1222Simon PagenaudTeam PenskeChevy222.849112
1330Takuma SatoRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda222.55184
1410Felix RosenqvistChip Ganassi RacingHonda222.54189
154Charlie KimballAJ Foyt EnterprisesChevy222.438102
1621Rinus VeeKayEd Carpenter RacingChevy222.06176
1724Sage KaramDreyer & Reinbold RacingChevy222.03146
1827Alexander RossiAndretti AutosportHonda221.95277
1918Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser SullivanHonda221.90587
2020Ed CarpenterEd Carpenter RacingChevy221.813102
2151James DavisonDale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing/Byrd/BelardiHonda221.70936
2288Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner AutosportHonda221.69991
2312Will PowerTeam PenskeChevy221.634124
248Marcus EricssonChip Ganassi RacingHonda221.588129
2515Graham RahalRahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda221.498111
2645Spencer PigotRLL with Citrone/Buhl AutosportHonda221.49281
2726Zach VeachAndretti AutosportHonda221.35998
285Pato O’WardArrow McLaren SPChevy221.34155
2959Max ChiltonCarlinChevy221.14736
3041Dalton KellettAJ Foyt EnterprisesChevy220.82526
317Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SPChevy220.13051
3267JR HildebrandDreyer & Reinbold RacingChevy219.85929
3341Tony KanaanAJ Foyt EnterprisesChevy218.3066